[Fmpro] NO one?? PRS changes?

[Mark Northam]

On 8/12/07 2:46 PM, "Pete" <musical411 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I'm not sure why you are so hell-bent on taking ASCAP
> money out of the pockets of Score Composers, Library
> Composers, Theme Composers and Songwriters and giving
> it to Jingle Writers who have already been handsomely
> rewarded by the Advertiser.

Ah...the surefire way to defend discrimination... Creating an "us versus
them" scenario and trying to paint the masses of those who are discriminated
against as a threat to the "rest of us" if they were to be paid at anywhere
close to the rates paid to the "rest of us." Pete, you're a much smarter guy
than that.... C'mon.

Frankly, I don't know why YOU are so hell-bent on defending a system that
wreaks of political discrimination and prejudice without a single financial
statistic  to back it up other than a decades-old assumption that "song is
king" and every other type of music is worth far less for a comparative one
minute usage. That assumption is no more valid than any other sweeping
assumption, for instance, that custom music written to picture (score)
should be worth much more than generic music (like songs) not written to
picture. 

What music is paid outside the PRO system is completely irrelevant to
royalty distributions. In every segment - song, score, theme, and CPA, some
music is paid a lot, and some music is paid a little outside the royalty
system. Your logic sounds like a proposal for an inverse valuation scheme -
the more the composer or writer is paid to write the music, the lower the
PRO royalty rate should be. By that thinking, the A-List film composers
should be paid the least of all score composers! Is this Robin Hood time or
something? 

Any way you slice it, discrimination based on stereotyping large groups of
writers and decimating the value of their music performances by assigning
pennies-on-the-dollar rates to them is just plain wrong.  Especially when
there's not a single word in broadcaster blanket licenses that refer to the
relative value of one specific types of music.

Best,

Mark Northam